Logistics & Supply Chain Vacancies

Logistics and supply chain recruitment: the people who keep goods, stock and orders moving

A late delivery lands on one person’s desk. The planner who holds the week’s deliveries in their head. The transport coordinator juggling a driver off sick and a customer on the phone. The buyer who spots the shortage before it hits the line. The supervisor who keeps the shift on track. They keep your customers served, and they’re hard to find and harder to replace.

Cathedral Appointments is a recruitment agency based in Exeter, with a presence in Plymouth and Taunton. We have been finding people for South West organisations since 1988, on permanent, temporary and contract terms, and we take the time to understand the operation first.

Talk to Ellie Connor on 01392 575691.

What we recruit

Logistics and supply chain covers the whole journey from supplier to customer. Cathedral Appointments recruits the supervisors, coordinators, planners, buyers and managers who run it, not the shop floor.

• Planning and scheduling. Production planners, demand and supply planners, transport planners and schedulers, and inventory and stock planners. The people who make sure the right stock and materials are in the right place at the right time.
• Purchasing and procurement. Buyers, purchasing and procurement officers and managers, category managers, and supplier and contract managers. The people who get the best terms from suppliers and keep supply secure.
• Logistics and transport coordination. Logistics and transport coordinators, shipping and import and export coordinators, freight and customs administrators, transport managers and fleet managers. The people who get it there on time and keep the operation compliant.
• Warehouse and stores leadership. Team leaders, shift supervisors, warehouse supervisors and warehouse managers, and stock control and inventory controllers. The people who lead the teams that receive, store and send out what your customers ordered.
• Order, customer and supply chain support. Order desk and customer service staff, sales order processors, supply chain administrators and analysts, and supplier and carrier account managers. The voice your customers and suppliers actually speak to.
• Running the operation. Operations managers, distribution managers, site managers and heads of logistics. The ones who make the whole operation work.

Senior and leadership roles

The people who run logistics, distribution and supply chain for a whole organisation are leaders too, and Cathedral Appointments recruits them. These searches are often confidential.

• Supply chain and logistics leadership. Heads of supply chain, logistics directors and distribution directors.
• Operations leadership. Operations directors, heads of operations and general managers.
• Procurement and planning leadership. Heads of procurement, purchasing directors and heads of planning.

Talk to Ellie Connor on 01392 575691, or to Clodagh Murphy, our Executive Director, on 01392 575692. Our Executive & Leadership page covers senior appointments across every sector.

What’s shaping logistics and supply chain hiring

Three things are shaping who employers need, and how they hire.

More people are looking, and employers are hiring again. The October 2026 edition of the KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs found permanent placements rising for a second month, with candidate availability still rising. Demand across the sector is strong: CV-Library data, reported by trans.info, put logistics and distribution vacancies at 76,639 in the second quarter of 2026, up 17.3% on a year earlier, and half of the employers it surveyed said finding the right skills was harder than a year ago.

The shortage has changed shape. Logistics UK’s Employment and Skills Report 2026 describes a sector that has moved from a shortage of labour to a mismatch of skills, and trans.info’s coverage of it says warehouse, logistics, transport and purchasing managers are increasingly important. That puts the weight on the people who plan, supervise and manage.

Employment law is changing, and the pay floor is rising. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, statutory sick pay became payable from the first day of absence in April 2026, and the time limit for tribunal claims rose from three to six months on 1 October 2026. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal is due to fall from two years to six months from 1 January 2027. From 1 April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour, up 4.1%. Getting the first hire right, or seeing someone in the role before you commit, matters more, and a rising floor narrows the gap between a team and the person supervising it, so supervisor pay needs to keep pace.

Cover the peak, hire for good, or try before you commit

Temporary. Someone off sick, a peak season, a big order or a new contract, and the office still has to keep up. We find order desk, customer service, transport and logistics coordination, planning support and administration cover, with timesheets handled, so you can get on with your day. It works just as well for a project or a busy spell, for as long as you need it and no longer.

Temp-to-perm. Not sure yet? Bring someone in on a temporary basis, see how they fit, then take them on, on terms agreed with you at the start. It suits roles that are new or still taking shape.

Permanent. When you want someone who will stay and grow with you, we search, screen and shortlist, so you only meet people who are right for the role.

Fixed-term and contract. Cover for a secondment, a systems change or a defined piece of work, with a clear end date.

Who we recruit for

Every business that makes, stores, moves or sells something relies on good logistics. We work with:

• Distribution and wholesale businesses
• Couriers, delivery and transport businesses
• Manufacturers and packaging producers
• Food, drink and agricultural producers
• Aviation, engineering and technical suppliers
• Consumer goods and retail suppliers
• Healthcare, care and life-science suppliers
• Online and e-commerce businesses

How we understand the role

Skills you can test. Character you have to meet.

• We start with you. Your site, your shift pattern, the systems you use and what a great first year looks like, before we start looking.
• We screen before we share. Every candidate you meet has been interviewed by us first.
• We look at the team, not just the task. A strong planner who doesn’t fit the team is a short-term hire, so we weigh personality and fit as carefully as skills.
• Cathedral Appointments knows the South West market. What roles pay, which employers are hiring, what shift patterns people will take and how far they will travel.

What moves pay

Pay in logistics and supply chain varies with the role and the operation. The big factors are the level of responsibility and the size of the team, the systems the person can run (ERP, warehouse management or planning software), professional qualifications such as CILT, CSCP, CPIM or CLTD, or a Transport Manager CPC where the role needs one, the size and type of operation, whether the role involves shift or on-call work, where the site is and how far people will travel, and whether the role can be hybrid. Temporary rates move with the role and the week. If you are about to advertise, ask Ellie for a benchmark for your role.

Questions we get asked

Do you recruit warehouse operatives or drivers? No. We recruit the people who supervise, plan and run the operation: team leaders, supervisors, coordinators, planners, buyers and managers. If you need operatives or drivers, we will say so up front.

Should we hire a temp or go straight to permanent? If the need is a peak, an absence or still taking shape, temporary is the safer start, and temp-to-perm lets you see someone in the role before you commit. With the unfair dismissal qualifying period due to fall to six months from January 2027, that matters more than it used to. If the role is clearly long-term and you have time, go permanent.

What’s the difference between logistics, supply chain and distribution roles? Logistics is mostly about moving and storing goods. Supply chain is wider, from buying and planning through to delivery. Distribution is getting goods to customers. The titles get used loosely, so we start from what you need done.

Does a supply chain manager need professional qualifications? Qualifications such as CSCP, CPIM or CLTD help, and many managers hold them, but in most businesses experience of your own kind of operation and systems counts for more. Tell us which you really need and which are nice to have.

Do these roles work hybrid? Planning, purchasing, analysis, coordination and customer service roles often can, at least part of the week. Supervisor, site and fleet roles are on site by nature. If you are open to hybrid working, say so in the brief: it widens the pool of people we can approach.

Your contact

Ellie Connor, Recruitment Consultant.

Ellie leads our logistics and supply chain team and works with warehouse, transport and supply chain leaders across Devon, Somerset & Cornwall.

Ellie Connor: 01392 575691 | ellie@cathedralappointments.co.uk